Getting started¶

The Columns UI SDK provides interfaces you can use to:

create windows controlled by a host and embedded in the host’s window
provide information about commands to be used as a toolbar button

Installation¶

You’ll need:

To install, download the SDK and extract the archive alongside the foobar2000 subdirectory of your foobar2000 SDK.

Usage¶

Insert the columns_ui-sdk project into your solution, and add it as a dependency for your project. Then #include "columns_ui-sdk/ui_extension.h" in your project as needed.

Examples¶

Two examples are published on GitHub:

Example panel – a simple panel that displays some text and implements a context menu item
Console panel – a console viewer

Panel APIs¶

APIs¶

Components wishing to provide a panel or toolbar should implement uie::window. Specific subclasses exist for:

Menus – uie::menu_window
Playlists – uie::playlist_window
Splitter panels – uie::splitter_window

Components wishing to host panels and toolbars should implement uie::window_host.

Helpers¶

uie::container_uie_window_v3 aims to simplify the implementation of a panel or toolbar, creating a window for you and partially implementing uie::window. It may not be suitable if you want to support multiple UI components, or you wish to also allow your panel to be opened as a pop-up window.

Button APIs¶

APIs¶

The base class for buttons is uie::button.

If you wish to provide default bitmaps and additional information for your menu items, derive from uie::menu_button. If you wish to implement a custom button not based upon a menu item, derive from uie::custom_button.

Exception handling¶

Implementations of virtual functions are not expected to throw C++ exceptions unless the documentation for the method mentions that exceptions may be thrown. It’s recommended that you declare implementations of virtual functions as noexcept when exceptions are not expected.

Additionally, callback functions that are passed to the Win32 API, such as window procedures, are generally not expected to throw C++ exceptions and hence declaring them noexcept is recommended.

noexcept will cause std::terminate() to be called if the function does throw an exception. This will result in an immediate crash, rather than allowing the exception to escape and cause messier crashes or other problems.

Standard windows¶

The GUIDs for the standard panels may be found in the cui::panels namespace. The GUIDs for the standard toolbars may be found in the cui::toolbars namespace.

You may use these GUIDs to create the standard windows in your own component; do not use them as GUIDs for your own windows.